Sport as a whole has changed in relation to the contemporary American economy by its constant growth and push for revenue. It has become a sort of “you scratch my back, I scratch yours.” type of relationship. I say this because of the amount of time and attention invested into making sport something that appeals to all people of American society rather than just the fans of the action itself. The constant negotiations for television deals, sponsorships, competition with other TV shows, and programs for time slots available within a network all play a large factor.
One prime example that we are all familiar with is the super bowl and the astounding revenue it generates from a multitude of audience groups. Not only does the game bring thousands
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It has become less and less arguable that the American football is one of the most violent sports there is to play and it is by far the most violent out of the popular sports played today. When we speak of physical culture, our understanding is contextually bound. In other words, physical culture to one person may not be the same as the next, given different situations. This is why we have ongoing debates on which activities should be classified as a “sport” and which ones shouldn’t. However, it seems pretty unanimous that American football fits the stereotypical context of physical culture since the active body is constantly used in a way beyond average human ability. This all ties into the push of physical culture in American football because it is its largest selling point to the fans. Most fans come to the games and watch it on television for the bone chilling tackles and electrifying runs. If you were to turn on Sports Center during football season, the most played highlights of each game will be the biggest hits and longest runs. Further using the physical culture of football to draw more viewers, in hopes of them witnessing what will be a “top ten play” the following day. When I think of this as a large selling point, three examples come to …show more content…
Again, using Ray Lewis as an example, he is known to be one of the more passionate athletes of all time in all sports. His pleasure or plaisir for the sport was shown both on the field as a player, on the sideline as a teammate, and from the television set as an analyst/spectator. The pleasure for inflicting pain via tackles was evident in his play, however, the spectator Plaisir became apparent on November 17th of 2013 when he showed absolute disgust for a particular play that Sunday in which a game changing defensive hit was deemed a penalty. This stirred up plenty of media controversy since Lewis went as far as to say he’ll pay half of the defensive players’ fine due to the blasphemous call handed out by the referee (Chase, 2013). This action clearly shows Lewis’ personal love for the sport itself, although he was always a team oriented player, this action is highly relatable to fans that have favorite players and become highly emotional when something happens as if the action personally affected
Over the past years, many will say that football has become America’s new pastime, taking over our weekends for almost half of the year. Fans travel from all over the country to see their favorite college or professional teams play, and once the football season is over, the countdown clock for the first game of fall begins. There are many positive aspects to the sport, and the fans and players love it, but in John McMurtry’s “Kill ‘em, Crush ‘em, Eat ‘em Raw”, the reader is introduced to a side of football that some have not seen, and many choose to ignore. McMurtry believes that the game of football has become one of people just wanting to hurt other people and too many injuries are occurring to justify the fun
Are young children putting their health and even their lives at risk if they partake in the sport of football? Some claim that the American sport is far too dangerous and the risk of concussions and injuries far outway the pros of the physical sport, while others insist that technological improvements and new regulations have made the sport safer. Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor of history and education at New York University, argues in his paper, “We Must Stop Risking the Health of Young Football Players,” that football is a sport that is too dangerous for the youth. He states his belief that technological improvements in helmets and changes in the rules of the sport have had little effect on reducing injuries and that nothing has worked.
Douglas E. Foley offers an interesting analysis of American football culture in high schools, in his article titled “The Great American Football Ritual: Reproducing Race, Class and Gender Inequality”. The author covers the ways that the football culture splits people apart and segregates them into groups based on what they contribute to the football scene. The football scene seems to bring negativity to the lives of every group it touches, yet it is still a staple in American culture to this day.
When looking into the history of our culture, there are many subtopics that fall under the word, “history.” Topics such as arts and literature, food, and media fall into place. Among these topics reside sports. Since the beginning of time, sports have persisted as an activity intertwined with the daily life of people. Whether it is a pick-up game of football in the backyard, or catching an evening game at the local stadium, sports have become the national pastime. According to Marcus Jansen of the Sign Post, more specifically, baseball is America’s national pastime, competing with other sports (Jansen 1). Providing the entertainment that Americans pay top dollar for, live the role models, superstars, and celebrities that put on a jersey as their job. As said in an article by Lucas Reilly, Americans spend close to $25.4 billion dollars on professional sports (Reilly 4). The people that many children want to be when they grow up are not the firefighters or astronauts told about in bed time stories. These dream jobs or fantasies have become swinging a bat or tossing a football in front of millions of screaming fans. When asked why so many dream of having such job, the majority will respond with a salary related answer. In today’s day and age, the average athlete is paid more than our own president. The cold hard facts show that in professional sports, the circulation of money is endless. Certain teams in professional baseball and football are worth over millions of dollars. Consequently, the teams who are worth more are able to spend more. The issue that arises with this philosophy is virtually how much more? League managers, team owners and other sports officials have sought out a solution to the surfacing problem. Is it fair to let...
American Football is a huge spectator sport where offensive and defensive players will use teamwork and perseverance to try and score more points than their opponent. Football is highly respected in America, where boys will try and pursue the dream of playing in the NFL (National Football Association) someday; but if you look at an average neighborhood, you will find that kids and adults of all ages love to go out and throw around the pigskin. (Lerner and Lerner 275). One thing Americans will take pride in is the college and NFL football teams they root for. People sit down with a beer and talk hours upon hours of football and two individuals can get in a heated discussion in the local sports store of whose sports team is better. Surprisingly enough, one will find the most passionate football players at the high school level. Most boys will start their football career as a young child in football programs such as Pop Warner to get a foothold and to get those involved in teamwork and friendships. These programs are usually the start to someone falling in love with the sport and making it a career choice eight years later. Football is one of America’s favorite sports. When fall season comes around, people across America are placing bets, finding out where that new sports bar is, and buying wide screen T.V’s to watch NFL on Sundays. After their team plays, they will go out and reminisce what happened that Sunday. While thousands of fans are still pumped from the NFL games they watched; small towns across America are getting ready to shut down their shops and restaurants to have the chance to make it to the local high schools football game. Ray Glier, a reporter for the New York Times, writes about football in the small town of Appala...
March 8th, 2004 was supposed to be nothing more than a competitive and action packed regular season hockey game between feuding rivals, the Colorado Avalanche and the Vancouver Canucks. The game slipped away from the Canucks, with the Avalanche up 6-2 heading into the third period. The heated contested already had its fair share of fighting majors, but an incident that happened late in the third period shocked the more than 18,000 fans in attendance at Rogers Arena, the hockey community, and North America. After failing to instigate a fight with Avalanche forward Steve Moore, Todd Bertuzzi of the Vancouver Canucks grabbed the back of Moore’s jersey, landed a vicious punch to the back of Moore’s head, before slamming him face first on the ice and falling on top of him. Moore had to be helped off the ice on a stretcher, and has never returned to the NHL. Bertuzzi, on the other hand, was suspended for 20 games by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, and is still playing in the NHL for the Detroit Red Wings. This is one of many examples of deviance in sports, and how a win-at-all costs mentality can drive athletes to act in extreme manners. As a result of the growing commercialization of sports, athletes are socialized at young ages to believe that winning is everything, and that stopping at nothing will help you succeed. Athletes will do almost anything to gain the upper hand in their respective sports, whether it is through engaging in excessive on-field violence or through the use of performance enhancing drugs, excessively committing themselves to their sport, or by violating league rules and policies. In sports, deviance is viewed in a different light than in the outside world. As professional athletes strive towards conforming to spor...
There has been a drastic change in sports from the 1930s to now. The biggest change from the 1930s to now is the segregation. In the 1930s you couldn’t find a black on a professional sports team. Today you can find at least five blacks on every professional team. Sports get much more attention today than they did in the 30s. In the 30s while these great sports were forming the Great depression was going on. The Great Depression made people find other things to do for cheap or closely to nothing.
This is the first year I have ever had an official football training camp. The first four weeks at Bethel is called training camp. Every morning you have to wake up at 5am for practice. Then you have weight lifting at 11am. After that you have two more meetings at 1pm and 3pm. To end off the day we have another practice at 5pm and that lasts to 8pm. Lights also have to be turned off by 11pm and you better not be caught outside of your dorm room after that time. Did I mention me have to eat mandatory breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I have never been that exhausted my entire life. All I did during that period of time was ear, sleep, football, and make phone calls home. Hopefully I will know what to expect and I will be well prepared for the next.
Contact sports in America, like football and boxing, carry a rich history of the spirit of the game, and the feeling of victory. These games bring us together as we cry out and cheer for our team or fighter as they deliver the winning touchdown, or the knockout that brings them the undisputed champion belt. However, these players are facing injuries that can destroy their career and affect their brain for the rest of their lives. We shouldn’t outlaw contact sports, but we should force safety to become more important. If we want to keep our players safe and continue the tradition of the contact sports we enjoy as a country, then we must evolve our safety in sports, and change the way we view contact sports as a country.
Sports in the United States are not only looked at as entertainment, but a way of life. Baseball once looked at as Americas pass time has taken a back seat. College football changed American culture by opening doors for masculinity, feminism, race diversity and the, disconnect between athletes and the general population.
The culture of football itself is puts the athletes that participate in the sport at a substantial risk for permanent brain damage. “Head hunting” by defensive players is when someone on the defensive side of the ball hits an unsuspecting player with full force, aiming for the head. This is not only psychologically demoralizing to the player, but it causes obvious physical damage. Another relevant aspect of football culture, is the requirement for these athletes to be tough, and play through injury; individuals that remove themselves from the game are seen as soft and selfish. As you can see, football players fail to address the extreme amounts of physical damage they endure throughout games. Players often only remove themselves when they
Sports may have impacted our culture much more then we thought it would, and keeps impacting. Sports have affected some of the most important aspects of life, such as jobs and money. It has also affected things as little as who we look up to and how we dress. Culture means “the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.” The definition of sports is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” So when we put two and two together we get a a nation or world that has changed due to sports. Back in the mid and late 1900’s sports were used to see whose way of life was better. As time went on and keeps going on, we
In the modern day United States the sport American football has become not only entertainment but also a tradition whether it’s watching the BCS college championship or watching the super bowl with the family. The sport of American football is unique to the United States and has grown and became iconic over the years and has become a part of many Americans lives. American Football was made in 1869 and was modeled after the sport of rugby. They took the basics of rugby and changed it to make it fit better for them. The game has changed over the years but it also affected many Americans as the tradition of Monday Night football has begun. The game has had problems with the United States government as it was said to be too dangerous to play, this lead to an upgrade in the equipment and they tried very hard to make the equipment well ensuring player safety throughout the sport.
A recent article in Readers Digest estimates that most Americans spend at least 13% of their income on sporting events and sport related products. Sports has entertained American people and drained money out of their pockets making sporting events an arena of pure economic activity. It has been proven that Americans will purchase tickets to attend sporting events, but this alone does not create enough revenue to keep sports teams profitable.
A young boy goes up to his mother and says, "Mommy! I want to be a baseball player!" If this was said in 1930, the boy's mother probably would have told the boy, "That's not future for you! You need to get a real job and make good money." If this was said in 1999, the boy's mother probably would have said, "Let's go to the store and buy you a baseball glove so you can start to practice." It is visible to every sports fan that in the past few decades, sports has undergone a whole new renovation. It isn't just an activity that is played for fun. It is a business in which owner and players attempt to coincide. It is a business where TV controls fan interest. It is also a business that affects many people's lives, both monetary and living aspects. There are many aspects that are involved with the economics of sport. Each one having unique qualities that adds to the greatest source of entertainment.